I'd agree that this is an excellent conference, the only complaint that I had is that it was too similar to last years event from a SQL Server perspective, sure some things have changed but not enough.

I'm not knocking any of the speakers here, Itzik was totally mind blowing (as usual) and the rest of them were great, the main complaint that I have is with Microsoft not getting SQL 2005 out to market which is hampering the speakers being able to show us all of the bells and whistles .

Yes, as much as I enjoy the little break from the office these conferences offer, I really couldn't justify going to one annually since, as you say, there aren't a whole lot of new things to see. Probably every two or three years would be sufficient.